Galatians

Study
25: Gal. 4:8-20

Knowing God

Howbeit
then, when ye knew
not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no
gods. But now,
after that ye have
known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again
to the
weak and beggarly
elements,
whereunto ye desire
again to be in bondage? Ye
observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid
of
you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. Brethren, I beseech
you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. Ye
know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you
at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye
despised
not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ
Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear
you
record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your
own eyes, and have given them to me. Am I therefore become
your
enemy, because I tell you the truth? They zealously affect
you,
but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect
them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a
good
thing, and not only when I am present with you. My little
children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in
you, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my
voice;
for I stand in doubt of you.

Gal.
4:8-20

1. A
review

In
previous
studies we
established that when we are born again, we are baptised into the body
of Christ and that everything we have in Christ is only because we are
in Christ. Thus, we are dead to sin and alive unto God because we are
baptised into His death and resurrection; we are anointed only because
He is THE anointed one and in Christ we are anointed with His
anointing, and so on. We then concluded that we are heirs only because
He is THE heir and we are in Him.

Because we have been baptised into Christ we also received the adoption
(position) of sons; we are freed from the childlike servant state of
being under the Law. Whilst the Gentiles
never
came from the Jewish background the context of the letter shows that if
the Christians were not Jewish originally, then they were being enticed
into the Mosaic economy.

And
certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and
said, Except ye
be
circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. When
therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation
with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of
them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this
question. And being brought on their way by the church, they passed
through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles:
and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. And when
they
were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the
apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done
with them. But there rose up certain of the sect of the
Pharisees
which believed, saying, That
it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law
of Moses.

Acts 15:1-5

How
tragic it
is that even in
these days there are believers who would entice Christians into
Judaism, and what we must remember is that present day Judaism is far
removed from 1st century Judaism! Also we must also consider and
remember that
the religious authorities of Jesus' day mis- represented the Scriptures,
disbelieved Jesus and rejected Him outright; since then Judaism has
diverged greatly from God, it had to, it had nowhere else to go. And
down the annals of history Judaism took on board many godless practices
such as the Kabbalah, a Gnostic type of religion, which is still
prevalent today in some quarters.

Orthodox Jews deny the Trinity; they reject Christ as the
Messiah, and have an empty seat at some of their ceremonies
for
the Messiah to come; this is a plain denial of the Lord Jesus
Christ who has
already come! And yet some believers still want us to become Jews by
adopting some of their practices! In light of this how can a born again
believer go into Judaism?

This is not to deny that some have been called to work
amongst
Jews in
order to reach them for Christ, as some are called to work
amongst other nations, but as we don't adopt the pagan
practices
of the godless heathen likewise we mustn't adopt the Jewish
practices either.

2.
Eternal
Life

But now, after that ye have
known God,
or rather are known of God...

Gal. 4:9a

... this is life
eternal, that they
might know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Jn.17:3

For this is the covenant that
I will
make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will
put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will
be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they
shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother,
saying, Know the Lord:
for all shall
know me, from the least to the
greatest.

Heb. 8:10-11

This is
what
true eternal life
is, knowing God. Originally Adam and Eve knew God in the garden, God
walked with them Gen.3:8,
but
once they had disobeyed His
command that communion was broken. The life that they knew
was
ended
and they were expelled from God's presence. From that time forth God
moved to have fellowship with His created beings restored.
This is why Jesus came into the world and suffered on Calvary. He was
then raised from the dead and received back to glory from whence He
poured forth the Holy Spirit so that men and women might enter into His
life. Men and women can therefore know God for themselves.

In the Hebrews passage above we are told explicitly that knowing God
is a
key point of the New Covenant. In the OC the People of Israel
didn't know God directly, they had to go through a mediator such as
Moses, or the High Priest; in fact on one occasion they pleaded for
Moses not to let God speak to them! Ex.
20:18-19.
The OC, whilst God given, and glorious in its own right, but superseded
by the glory of the NC II Cor.
3:7-11,
failed on this count: the individual didn't know God; they didn't have
the Spirit in their hearts; the laws of God were external; they only
had the law on the outside. The tablets of stone were written on by God
and placed in the Ark of the Covenant. In the NC God writes His law in
our hearts; it is internal.

There is a change of life/disposition when we are born anew, we know God
individually, we have His life place din us we become partakers of the
Divine nature II
Pet. 1:4. This is even more glorious than the OC. Real
Biblical
Christianity is the life of God in man or woman, not following rules,
regulations and obligations. God places His Spirit in us and we live
and fulfil the 'Royal Law' because it is now our nature to do so. We
know God and this is life eternal indeed.

3.
Not
of ourselves.

In the passages above there is the emphasis
that
it is of
God and not of man. But now, after that ye have
known God,
or rather are known of God... Paul
makes it clear that the initiative came from God; we did nothing to
seek out God Rom.
3:11, He sought us out; if God had not bothered then we
would
all have been lost without any hope. But thanks be to God who loved us
and searched us out that we may have this great salvation!

It is He who puts His Spirit within us, we cannot earn Him, the Spirit
is by promise, but is to all who truly turn to Him, Acts
2:38-39.
Without the Holy Spirit we have no way of knowing God nor His
ways
I Cor. 2:10-12.
It is all of God, not dependent on us or any man at all, And
a
good thing it is too, for we are not dependent on how good we
are, or what works we can accomplish or the benevolence of any human
being; our dependency is on God alone for salvation.

4.
Your
Position?

To know God! that is eternal life, what Adam lost in the garden the
Lord Jesus Christ has restored to us by His death and resurrection. By
His glorification the Holy Spirit has been poured out and all those who
put their trust in Him will be born anew, be baptised into Christ and
know God for themselves.

Dear reader do you know God? Have you been born again from above? Have
you had the new heart that God promises to those who put their trust
in Him? If not, you do not have the eternal life of
which
we speak; you are still in your sins and are under condemnation. If you
do not have this salvation you must turn to God in repentance and
receive His free gift of eternal life. Nothing you can do can
earn God's favour: you need to drop all you efforts of
religion,
self-righteous works and the such like and enter into this life by
simple faith in Him alone.

Come
unto me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and
ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
my
burden is light.

Matt.
11:28-30

But
God, who is rich in
mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we
were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye
are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages
to
come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved
through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not
of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them.